Mayor Hopes for Gun BuyBack Success

A 16-year-old girl is still recovering in the hospital after a shooting on Saturday night on Maple Street off Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

"We heard about six to seven gunshots and I looked out my window, preceded to the front door, opened it and I heard people screaming, and distinctively remember screaming she's been shot," said Joshua Taranto, who lives close to where the shooting happened.

Taranto ran to the scene with his first aid kit and found a girl lying face down on the ground with a bullet in her lower back.

"Everybody else was screaming and I was just applying pressure, trying not to really look at the gore of it," said Taranto.

According to police, the victim is in stable condition and Mayor Virg Bernero says it's time to get to the root of the problem.

"I've attended funerals of too many young people, I'm hoping there's a community dialogue. Kids with guns is a terrible deadly combination and we see this increasingly," said Mayor Bernero.

He says that's where the city's gun buyback program comes into play. Though not expected to be the magic answer to all violence, the mayor hopes it'll be part of the solution, something that takes guns away from those who shouldn't have them.

"My goal is not to collect all the guns in Lansing, my goal is not to prevent any law-abiding citizen from having a gun," said Mayor Bernero.

The debate over gun control is going strong not only in Lansing, but around the country and this time, the mayor expects to take at least 100 guns off the street during the gun buyback this Saturday.

Police have a person of interest in Saturday's shooting of the 16 year old. Her younger sister was also grazed by a bullet.

Another victim is also recovering after a drive-by shooting that happened early Sunday morning in the 1000 block of Euclid Place. Police believe that shooting is not random and that the shooter was targeting the victim.

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